Mountain Roads and Kleptomaniac Monkeys: The Journey to India's Tip

The journey to mainland India’s most southern point took us through the Western Ghats, to waterfalls, thieving monkeys, more sacred elephants and kidnapped trophies. Our teams had to navigate mountain roads and potholes to see the sun set over Cape Comorin where the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal all meet on our penultimate day of the Rickshaw Challenge.
Day 8, Tirunelveli – Kanniyakumari
We kicked off from Tirunelveli a little earlier than the other routes on the trip since the day sheet was packed with activity, but the long drive across palm-clad backwaters and up into the Western Ghat Mountains was worth the extra time.

I rode along with the Slovenians from the TDB Team, whose winning technique of getting from place to place seemed to be nothing more than just pulling up at any rickshaw driver yelling with a smile: “Hey rickshaw man, can you tell me the way to Papanasam?” Even though they did this each 200m, they never got lost, even when taking back country roads.
But there is the reason these men have racked up points over this rickshaw run, since they never get lost, do the challenges and go out of their way to tick all the boxes.
“Elephant! Elephant! Photo competition!” Dorde yelled out enthusiastically as we approached the giant creature, as his companion Iztok stopped the tuk-tuk so they could snap a photo of the elephant with the rickshaw in line with the photo contest given to the participants, where a photo with an elephant contributed points.
“Let the elephant touch your head, give him 10 rupees,” he said.
I took a 10 rupee note out and the elephant grasped it with its trunk and handed it back to the owner. I then received a very sloppy kiss on my forehead from its trunk before the owner continued down the road with the elephant in tow.

The road got worse, but the scenery became more dramatic the closer we approached the Western Ghats.
The first task involved trekking up to a dam up in the mountains, so after curving up serpentine roads we reached what looked like a car park and hiked on from there. We had been warned about monkeys, and seeing them hovering around the area, I realised it was not the best idea to leave a plastic bag of bananas in the tuk-tuk. However, carrying them tempted fate, since a monkey mugged me.

At the top of the dam, I saw the monkey approach and before I realised the danger I was in, he ripped into my plastic bag, stuffed one banana in his mouth, then grabbed the rest in his hand and ran off. This was not the first and last monkey attack of the day, Nick from the Scottish team The Kilted Ring Sting had a primate go straight for the crotch in search of crisps, and a bottle of Fanta got snatched out the rickshaw and carried up a tree!
Other challenges along the road involved a temple up in the Western Ghats on one of the rivers, another big dam and a waterfall.

Things got interesting once I got to the gate to the waterfall. The Slovenians decided to buy the ticket to get in to complete the challenge but not bother with the potholed road up to the place, so I switched ‘shaws with the Scottish team the Kilted Ring Sting and sped off down the tiny pass round the dam.
Brett and Nick showed no fear at speeding over potholes, going round sharp bends, but the Norwegians Game of Horns nearly run us off at a tight corner.

“Bloody Vikings!” muttered Nick as he continued to rev the engine. Although certain steep points meant our Scots had to get out and push before slamming on the acceleration and get the rickshaw up to 60kph. The adrenaline kicked in as we raced over the potholes, and a quick cool down in the Manimuthar Falls helped put everything right in the blistering heat. Although, we all had to deal with some monkey business from thieving primates ransacking our rickshaws before we sped off to Kanniyakumari.

We may have missed the sunset at India’s most southerly point, but the view over the Western Ghats on the road to mainland India’s most southern point has been the highlight to date, with light on mirror-like lakes, palms and jagged mountains.

Getting to the hotel was less idyllic, since the road down the seafront was cut off with a market. The Scots pushed forward, finding an alternative route down one of the backstreets that came out at a slightly open gate with a truck backed up in front of it. The Scots tried to squeeze their rickshaw through the gap but not luck. About to give up, one of the locals came and helped us open the other side, and soon our rickshaws raced into the market place and up to the hotel. There was a rickshaw pimping contest, but the Scots, accompanied by the Flying Kiwis and Eat My Shawdust, both missed the flagdown and the judging, and made a bee-line with the others for a beer.

Team Apathy had a sneaky way to get their team name out there by putting “Team Apathy Winners of the Rickshaw Challenge 2015” stickers all over the others’ rickshaws and even had a fake trophy made. Some of the other teams were not too happy with this, so kidnapped the trophy, and held it to ransom. All Team Apathy had to go on were a few suspect pictures featuring their trophy…

Team Dukes of the Green managed to stay intact, although their rickshaw went flying on two wheels and almost toppled (again) when Piers tried to swerve round a bus and a pothole. The boys have a hang on riding the rickshaw… finally… it seems.